Established in
1983, Wilderness Safaris is a conservation organisation and ecotourism company
dedicated to providing responsible tourism in the areas in which it
operates camps and safaris namely: Botswana, Congo,
Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the
Seychelles.

Wilderness' pending entry into the Zimbabwean
aviation scene along side Sol Air, Fresh Air, Phoenix Air, Bumi Air and Anjin Investments, comes as some players in the troubled country's tourism
industry have had to take matters into their own hands and provide their
own air services - case in point "Bumi Air", a recently established air
service operating between Harare, Bumi Hills Safari Lodge (near Kariba)
and Victoria Falls - a route that used to be plied by Air Zimbabwe.

Bumi Air in Harare (Luck Brown)

In July, controversial diamond mining firm, Anjin Investments, a 50/50 joint venture between the government-owned Zimbabwe
Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and Anhui Foreign Economic
Construction Company Ltd of China, also applied for a commercial airline licence to service domestic,
regional and international routes, having acquired a new 12-seater corporate-commuter aircraft shortly thereafter.

Prospects for an established national carrier akin to the now quasi-defunct Air Zimbabwe appear to be bleak to non existent. Having asked rival South African Airways in early August to be the official carrier for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly (UNWTO) set for next year in Victoria Falls, it appears that not even the Zimbabwean Government is banking on Air Zimbabwe (UM) returning to viable and reliable service any time soon, though with 2 Airbus A320s already painted in UM colours, Air Zimbabwe may just have the last laugh.

"Even if Air Zimbabwe was flying, what we are looking at is access to destinations,” Kaseke said.
“We look at an airline that has got the most connection from all destinations. “So South African Airways is well connected because it flies to far many more destinations than any other airlines.
“So it’s not about Air Zimbabwe’s woes that we are talking about here.
“Even if Air Zimbabwe was not having any problems, I think the first
reasonable decision would be to say South African Airways is the
preferred airline.”"

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Over the last 3 weeks or so, we have been in Zimbabwe for business and had the chance to pay Air Zimbabwe and the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) a visit to try and try get some updates on the status of Air Zimbabwe (UM) as well as other general info. After all, the interwebs has been filled with vast amounts of speculation and conflicting reports on Air Zimbabwe's status and murky dealings all of which make it very difficult to get an accurate picture of what is really going on there.

This is what we were told by our sources:

Air Zimbabwe is still flying domestically, albeit using its aging Boeing 737-200Adv fleet to service Harare - Victoria Falls and Harare - Bulawayo. According to our sources, loads have picked up (which is no surprise seeing as there is no other competition on the routes). Harare - Vic Falls costs USD$400 return (lol).

An AirZim 737 awaiting its flight to Bulawayo (24 June 2012)

Air Zimbabwe has indeed received a second A320 as previously reported by us. The two aircraft are now awaiting CAAZ registration before entering service, though where to, is still unknown. Also, the mysterious deal for two Airbus A340-500s that never was, came up quite often. Seems the deal is somehow "still in the offing" (make of that what you will, but we will believe it when we see it) though how much of that is truth and how much is pure BS is anyone's guess.

Site News:

Welcome to The African Aviation Tribune - the web's most up-to-date resource on all news and events to do with aviation in Africa.With bureaux in Rome, Italy and Harare, Zimbabwe, if it happens, we'll cover it.